Snow dog

We have had a lot of snow...did I say a lot, yes, I mean alot of snow! Being the end of January, we are all officially sick of snow...yes even the dogs are sick of it! Sadly, we still probably have atleast another big month of snow

New sport?

So Jeff got complimentry tickets to Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) professional fights in Salt Lake City. He knows one of the trainers. A few days later, we watch "Cinderella Man" and "Cool Hand Luke". Is this a new sport at our house?

Christmas pics

January is quite boring. That must be so that we can catch up with ourselves. So, with that in mind, here are our christmas pics: Santa brought me a new tamale cooker and of course all the ingredients to make some wonderful pork tamales. Santa must like pork tamales so I got busy and made him some:
Everyone opens presents...yes, even the dogs who probably love it the most! Santa & his elves put together our new pool table...watch out for the sharks!

And another shot of our new house plant...our fake palm tree. Yes, it's still up and we love it. Will probably leave it for a while it's so cool.

I probably shouldn't post these but here goes:

Feliz Navidad - A Chilean Christmas Eve

Jaren was really looking forward to a white Christmas after 2 very hot ones. We did not disappoint! With lots of snow outside, we had a Chilean Christmas Eve party and Chilean food of his choosing: Choriana, Empanadas, Tomato-Onion Salad, Lettuce salad with lemon juice, olive oil & salt, Orange crush and Coke. I actually let Jeff deep fat fry something...outside (the empanadas). Yes, deep fat frying has been off limits in our house because of the thought of clogged arteries as we're getting older and the horrible after smell!

For decorations Jeni & I put together a cheesy fake 10 ft. palm tree inspired by a photo of Jaren and his first Christmas in Chile standing in a town square by a palm tree decorated with Christmas lights. We had such a fun time cooking together and celebrating Christmas.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Neighborhood Treats

Pretzel Rods wearing 3 Coats:

Homemade Caramel, White or Milk chocolate, Cute Decorations

Seriously, my favorite part of the holiday season is the neighborhood treats. I like thinking up something unique and wow! I still remember as a little girl delivering neighbor treats and my favorite ones were the variety of colors & flavors of almond bark my mom made.

I like to try to outdo myself every year and have to say...in my years, I've done pretty good. When the kids were little I sewed count down calendars for all the neighborhood...probably about 25 and delivered them before Dec. 1st. That was one of my favorites. An old standby favorite is our beautiful red raspberry huckleberry jam with a gold bow and a warm loaf of bread.

Another family favorite was the year we found pineapples on sale for $1 each and the kids wore Hawaiian shirts with a leigh and delivered them with a poem about the pineapple representing friendship.

Here's this year. I think last year's was prettier but I decided last year I wanted to do these for this year and it was a lot of fun!

Senior Pics at the Mall

So, while Christmas shopping at the mall....we discover that one of the bunch is a celebrity. A very popular photographer displays some of his best Sr. pics. Handsome....